1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions, for hepatic disorders, comprising triterpene derivatives or salts thereof as an active ingredient. The present invention also relates to novel triterpene derivatives.
2. Background Art
A liver is an important organ which has various functions necessary for maintaining life of a living body, such as detoxication, various metabolisms, and storage of substances. It, however, often undergoes acute or chronic damage due to viruses, drugs, alcohols and other various causes. This induces viral hepatitis, drug-induced hepatopathy, alcoholic hepatopathy, fatty liver, and, in addition, diseases such as cirrhosis and hepatic cancer.
For treating such hepatic diseases, alimentary therapy, rest cure, and other therapies using glycyrrhizin preparations, adrenocortical steroids, interferon and the like have hitherto been employed. These therapies, however, cannot be said to be satisfactorily effective for the treatment of hepatic disorders. Glycyrrhizin and interferon are intravenously administered and, hence, unsuitable for prolonged administration. Further, the interferon and steroids have a problem of side effect.
Some triterpene derivatives have anticomplementary activity and platelet aggregation inhibitory activity. Thus, they and are known as prophylactic and pharmaceutical compositions for immunological diseases and thrombosis (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 85344/1986). However, there is no report which discloses that the triterpene derivatives are effective as a pharmaceutical composition for treating hepatic disorders.